EUGENE DUBNOV
At the Bathing-Pool
O
RLIK-THAT'S WHAT
they called Kolka Orlov at school-wasn't
liked. He was the only one in the whole school who lived in
that block of luxury flats on the corner of Petrovsky Park
which was close
to
the school itself. Occasionally he would invite Yura
to
visit him, and Yura felt shy on entering the vast apartment with par–
quet flooring. Because of this flooring you had to take your shoes off at
the door before you went in and put on a pair of slippers which was
there specifically for that purpose. Yura had only seen Orlik's father
once-and even then not in this grand flat, but at a distance, when he
was waiting for his son opposite the school. On that occasion Orlik had
said in a loud whisper
to
Yura at the end of the last period, "You must
excuse me, Dad is waiting"-for all the world as if Yura had any need
of him-and then he put up his hand.
"Do you want
to
answer the question, Orlov?" The teacher was sur–
prised. "All right then-in what way did Vladimir ll yich develop Marx
and Engels?"
"I can't say but my dad is waiting," Orlik announced. "Today at the
Young Pioneers Palace they're holding an evening event-invitation
only-for the coming generat ion
to
meet the veterans, and we've been
invited. Things start early, at six, and before that we've got
to
go
to
the
members-only gymnasium ."
But that ploy didn't work with the teacher.
"When the lesson's over-and not a moment before-you will go to
this members-only gymnas ium, Orlov," she said, and Orlik sat down to
the accompaniment of a little gloating laugh from the class.
It
was then,
coming out of school with him, that Yura caught a glimpse of Orlik's
father standing by the newspaper kiosk over the road. He was a tall and
portly man, wearing a fur coa t fit for a nobleman and an Astrakhan hat,
but Yura cou ld not make out his face from where he was. However, as
far as Orlik's mother, Klavdiya Ivanovna, was concerned, Yura had had
the luck to see her at close quarters-not on ly
to
see her but to hear her
too. That was when, addressing him for some reason as Seryozha, she
had explained
to
him how one ought
to
read a book without dirtying it
or losing it. Yura had planned
to
borrow
Huckleberry Finn
and
Treasure
Island
from Orlik; but after all his mother's warnings Yura changed his
